Money story: Life after debt

This guest post from Marissa — a local woman I learned about last November — is part of the “money stories” feature at Get Rich Slowly. Some stories contain general advice; others are examples of how a GRS reader achieved financial success — or failure. These stories feature folks from all stages of financial maturity. Today, Marissa (a.k.a.The Budgeting Wife) shares what she and her husband have decided to do after paying off $87,000 in debt.

Does life change after becoming debt-free? Yes! The freedom that you get from being debt-free is amazing, life-changing, and encouraging for the future.

But does your lifestyle have to change after becoming debt-free? Not necessarily. Here’s my story.

Our Debt-Free Journey

I met my husband Jacob while we were both attending the same private university. When we got married in July 2015 (right after graduation), you bet that we had a ton of student loan debt — $87,000 of debt to be exact.

Having this much debt in our early twenties, while we were just starting our careers, was overwhelming! There were times where I thought we’d never be debt-free. But thanks to some planned sacrifice and lifestyle changes, we were able to pay it all off in about two-and-a-half years.

To meet our goals, we kept our lifestyle very simple.

We took public transportation to our entry-level jobs because our employer paid for it. We shopped at the cheapest grocery stores that we could find. We meal-planned every week! Eating out was a maybe once a month luxury to Chipotle. Our one-bedroom apartment, 700-square-foot apartment had plenty of room for the two of us. We didn’t take vacations. Our date nights consisted of binge-watching a lot of Netflix.

For the last year of our debt-free journey, we even moved in with my parents. This allowed us to rent for less while really tackling our debt! Crazy, I know. We were twenty-somethings who had been married for one year… and moved back in with our parents! (Once we’d met our goals, we moved back out however.)

As difficult as those first few years were for us, it was completely worth it.

All of these sacrifices allowed us to put 70% of our income toward loans each month. We gave up a lot, but we gained even more. There’s truly no better feeling than being debt-free.

Our Debt-Free Lifestyle

We became debt-free last October. Since then, our lifestyle hasn’t changed a whole lot. But it has changed some.

Considering we were living at almost bare bones, we knew we wanted to increase our lifestyle a little bit. We celebrated becoming debt-free by going on a Caribbean cruise in October. That was an extravagance! And we officially moved out of my parents house and into our own modest apartment again in November. (We love our new place!)

But besides living in our own place again, our debt-free lifestyle hasn’t really changed. I’m still driving my 1998 Camry and my husband drives his 2001 Tacoma. We cook most of our dinners at home, and pack our lunch to work every single day. Our evenings still consist of Netflix marathons and date nights are about once a month with a gift card that someone has given us.

The neat thing about completing a debt-free journey is that you grow comfortable living with daily sacrifices. And then those sacrifices don’t seem that bad! For two-and-a-half years, we learned how to make life work with three-year-old clothing, twenty-year-old cars, and cooking our own meals. We learned that fun doesn’t have to mean spending money, but that it can be found with the people you spend time with.

Leveraging Our Lifestyle to Reach New Goals

Since repaying our student loans, we’ve turned our attention to saving for the future — to building what J.D. calls a wealth snowball. Because we’re no longer living with my parents (and we’ve relaxed our standards a little), we’re no longer saving 70% of our income. But we are saving almost half.

We’ve been contributing to our retirement savings. We’re also saving heavily for our emergency fund — first and foremost. It’s been so much fun to watch our savings account go up!

After we finish saving a full emergency fund, we’re going to start saving for a house. While we enjoy our time in our apartment, we can’t wait to have a house of our own! Buying a home will be the biggest purchase of our lives, so we want to make sure that we’re smart about it and can have a good down payment.

Oh, and those twenty-year-old cars we have? We’ll probably have to get new ones soon… So add that to the savings list!

Maintaining the Debt-Free Lifestyle

When I meet people who are recently debt-free (or about to be), I encourage them to maintain the same budget and lifestyle they had when they were paying off debt. The debt-free journey is hard at first, but once you’ve become accustomed to the lifestyle, it’s not so tough to maintain…if you make an effort.

If I could give people digging out of debt some advice, it would be to not stop once you’re debt free. Don’t change your habits. Keep the intensity. Stay focused on your next goal. Maintain the simple lifestyle that helped you succeed in the first place.

Reminder: This is a story from one of your fellow readers. Please be nice. After twenty years of blogging, I have a thick skin, but it can be scary to put your story out in public for the first time. Remember that this guest author isn’t a professional writer, and is just learning about money like you are. Unduly nasty comments on reader stories will be removed or edited.

Congratulations on tackling your debt and winning! A well-written and inspirational story!

As one who is on the other end of the Frugal Journey (FI long ago but still working for fun), I can tell you that living frugally is not only good for your financial life (obviously), but is its own reward. When not wasting your money becomes a habit, you then become more mindful of how you use all your resources—-time, for instance. Many people in our culture spend money without thinking, using it as a shortcut to gain some desired object or to appear more powerful and important.

But for the mindfully frugal, life becomes richer in experiences, intentionality, productivity, relationships, and so on. Money becomes a means to and end and not the endpoint itself.

Congrats! Obviously working towards the same goal as a team helps with the momentum, but I am sure that also comes with its own challenges. Bravo for being able to accomplish the goal together. You have given yourselves such an amazing start.

I personally don’t agree with DR on certain things but I can’t deny that his methods are motivating for many, and sometimes that’s all some people need to get things going.

As someone who uses debt as leverage, I hope you don’t become adverse to all debt in your future and instead learn to recognize an opportunity on its own merit, rather than whether or not it comes with debt.

I understand abstaining if you have a proven problem, but it doesn’t seem that you two fit in that category; you seem responsible enough to manage a reasonable amount of mindful debt.

It’s weird to me that this is a thing. Before buying our house, we paid off my $30,000 college loans or so while I was still attending grad school. I didn’t realize the normal thing was to piss away your money as soon as you got it, but the more I read about PF the more it becomes clear that there are a lot of people out there who just can’t help themselves. Sure, every now and again I will make a foolish purchase or buy something because it makes me feel good, but for the most part they are infrequent and don’t have a large impact on the bottom line.

It’s just weird to me that people should be congratulated for becoming debt free. I wonder which institution or societal trend is most at fault for this.

Yes, paying off large amounts of debt at a young age is unusual. But this debt issue isn’t new. It’s been an issue for decades. And people mismanaging their money has been going on for thousands of years. I’m not sure there’s any one institution or trend that’s “at fault”, as you put it. There are a whole host of things that contribute to the issue, especially in our modern world. But to me, one thing is sure: It’s up to each individual to make smart choices, regardless what’s normal and what’s going on in the world at large. I think that’s why we congratulate people for becoming debt free — because they’re exhibiting a strong internal locus of control, taking charge of their own lives.

My wife and I are in a similar situation that you were – although we’re a little older and the student loan debt is technically mine. We’ve been rapidly paying it off, and it’s nice to know someone else has accomplished something similar, meaning that it is indeed possible!

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My name is J.D. Roth. I started Get Rich Slowly in 2006 to document my personal journey as I dug out of debt. Then I shared while I learned to save and invest. Twelve years later, I've managed to reach early retirement! I'm here to help you master your money — and your life. No scams. No gimmicks. Just smart money advice to help you get rich slowly. Read more.

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